35 Items

Karbala Iraq Shia

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Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

Iran's Axis of Resistance Rises: How It's Forging a New Middle East

| Jan. 24, 2017

In 2006, in the midst of a fierce war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice famously stated that the world was witnessing the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.” She was right—but not in the sense she had hoped. Instead of disempowering Hezbollah and its sponsor, Iran, the war only augmented the strength and prestige of what is known as the “axis of resistance,” a power bloc that includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas in Palestine.

A video image of New York Times Journalist Anthony Shadid who died in Syria of an asthma attack in February 2012.

Getty Images / Joseph Eid

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Remembering Anthony Shadid

| February 17, 2016

"How the unfolding events in northern Syria play out may well set the tone for things to follow in this region for years to come, given the many wars now taking place there among global, regional and local powers. Amidst this unprecedented situation of often desperate warring actors, I believe it is appropriate to remember this week the life and work of the late Anthony Shadid, who reported for the New York Times when he died in northern Syria exactly four years ago this week..."

Syrians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following reported air strikes by regime forces in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, on August 30, 2015.

Getty Images / Abd Doumany

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Complexities and perplexities in the Arab world

| February 13, 2016

"Syria is the place that still captures the complexities of statehood and society challenges in the Middle East, which tend to elicit perplexities in the policies of most foreign powers. This is partly a function of political geography that goes back millennia, and is not peculiar to our time. Many regional and world armies in the past five millennia — Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Persia, Crusaders, Egypt, Parthia, Ottomans, France, Great Britain, and Islamic dynasties — have repeatedly occupied this land, fought over it, or sought to control it through local proxies."

Syrian man comforts a boy amid the rubble of buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on February 4, 2016.

Getty Images (Thaer Mohammed)

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Aleppo’s frightening reminder of wider threats, and older glories

| February 10, 2016

"Aleppo today is frightening almost beyond description and comprehension. One of the world’s ancient centers of civilization is bombed, sieged, tortured, and starved to death, and hundreds of thousands of fleeing refugees do not know if they will find shelter or live another week. Even then, Aleppo is not the most frightening thing we have to understand these days in this realm of modern urban warfare."

What Vladimir Putin is really up to in Syria

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Analysis & Opinions - Los Angeles Times

What Vladimir Putin is really up to in Syria

    Author:
  • Dennis Ross
| February 9, 2016

Secretary of State John F. Kerry has for years been trying to produce a diplomatic process that could not just alleviate the suffering in Syria but, in time, end the conflict there. Not long ago, he was optimistic that his efforts were bearing fruit. So much so that after the November talks in Vienna, when Russia and others agreed that negotiations should begin in January, be accompanied by a cease-fire and culminate in elections after an 18-month transition process, the secretary declared: “We're weeks away conceivably from the possibility of a big transition in Syria.”

Opposition fighters belonging to Jaish al-Islam (Islam Army), the foremost rebel group in Damascus province who fiercely oppose to both the regime and the Islamic State group, check their ammunition belts in Tal al-Aswan in the area of the eastern Ghouta

AFP/ Amer Almohibany

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Intriguing opportunity and dangers of ground forces in Syria

| February 6, 2016

"This week was full of omens that Syria in its already fractured and suffering condition should look forward to more misery, due to the actions of Syrians as well as foreign powers, amidst slow-moving negotiations for ceasefires and a future political transition. The most intriguing sign of things to come was the official announcement that Saudi Arabia is willing to provide ground forces to fight “Islamic State” (ISIS) in Syria, if the anti-ISIS countries that will meet in Brussels this month agree on a coordinated ground-and-air strategy."

ISIS as Revolutionary State

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Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

ISIS as Revolutionary State

| November/December 2015

"Regional actors will no doubt try to pass the buck and get Americans to do their fighting for them. U.S. leaders should reject such ploys politely but firmly and pass the buck right back. ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States, to Middle Eastern energy supplies, to Israel, or to any other vital U.S. interest, so U.S. military forces have no business being sent into harm's way to fight it."

Analysis & Opinions - The Huffington Post

Just Say No To Bashar

| October 27, 2015

"How can we say to history that we helped maintain in power the man ultimately responsible for the repression of an uprising that began peacefully and which has caused the deaths of more than 200,000 people, amid gas and barrel bomb attacks, and has produced four million externally displaced and eight million internally displaced persons. If he is not to answer to this tragedy, he can at least leave power."

Iraqi government forces fight ISIL near Al-Karmah, in Anbar Province, Iraq.

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Attack ISIS’ drivers to defeat it

| May 13, 2015

"A frightening combination of elements shapes official and public perceptions of ISIS. This includes obvious gaps in knowledge about some aspects of ISIS and its operations; some frenzy about not being able to track or counter the multiple means of recruiting ISIS adherents via social media; and exaggerated fears that hundreds of ISIS members or supporters with foreign passports may be lurking in backyards, mosques or local grocery stores across American towns and cities."